The present invention relates to separable compositions, methods, and kits for use in detection and quantitation of polypeptides. The invention finds particular application to the area of multiplexed assays for polypeptides including proteins involved in post-translational activity.
The need to determine many analytes including polypeptides and nucleic acid sequences in blood or other biological fluids has become increasingly apparent in many branches of medicine. Most multi-analyte assays, such as assays in the genomics area that detect multiple nucleic acid sequences, involve multiple steps, have poor sensitivity, a limited dynamic range (typically on the order of 2 to 100-fold differences, and some require sophisticated instrumentation. Some of the known classical methods for multianalyte assays include the following:                a. The use of two different radioisotope labels to distinguish two different analytes.        b. The use of two or more different fluorescent labels to distinguish two or more analytes.        c. The use of lanthanide chelates where both lifetime and wavelength are used to distinguish two or more analytes.        d. The use of fluorescent and chemiluminescent labels to distinguish two or more analytes.        e. The use of two different enzymes to distinguish two or more analytes.        f. The use of enzyme and acridinium esters to distinguish two or more analytes.        g. Spatial resolution of different analytes, for example on arrays, to identify and quantify multiple analytes.        h. The use of acridinium ester labels where lifetime or dioxetanone formation is used to quantify two different viral targets.        
Proteomics has come of interest over the last few years. While proteomics is more complex than genomics, the study of proteins gives more accurate pictures of cell biology than studying mRNA. The field of proteomics is very broad and involves areas such as, for example, protein profiling by the use of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry to study proteins expressed in the cell, protein-protein interaction using yeast two-hybrid method, pathway analysis to understand signal transduction and other complex cell processes, large scale protein folding and 3-D structure studies and high-throughput expression and purification of proteins, cellular expression during metabolism, mitosis, meiosis, in response to an external stimulus, e.g., drug, virus, change in physical or chemical condition, involving excess or deficient nutrients and cofactors, stress, aging, presence of particular strains of an organism and identifying the organism and strain, multiple drug resistance, protein-DNA interactions, protein-peptide interactions, and the like. It is necessary to have a means for identifying a large number of proteins in a single sample, as well as providing some quantitation of the different proteins being detected.
As the human genome is elucidated, there will be numerous opportunities for performing diagnostic procedures relating to the coding sequences of genes. One major function of genes is to generate proteins, which play a major role in the work carried out in a cell. Because the protein functions in a cell are dynamic, the structure, concentration, location, and so forth of a particular protein at a particular point in time is constantly changing. Analysis of protein expression patterns is the subject of ongoing genomics projects. Studies of physiologically active forms of proteins and their spatial and temporal interaction in the cell is an important aspect of the overall study.
One post-translational modification of proteins is the addition or removal of phosphate groups. Protein phosphorylation and de-phosphorylation reactions have been established as major components of metabolic regulation and signal transduction pathways. Variations in protein phosphorylation provide the predominant means of enzymatic regulation now known in biological systems, especially in the regulation of signal transduction from cell surface receptors. Reversible phosphorylation is important for transmitting regulatory signals, including proliferative ones, in all living cells. To understand the molecular basis of these regulatory mechanisms, it is necessary to identify the specific amino acid residues that become phosphorylated. By identifying the substrates and sites of phosphorylation, diagnostic tools may be developed for some tumors and the modification of the process itself could be a target for therapeutic intervention.
Polypeptides such as growth factors, differentiation factors and hormones are crucial components of the regulatory system that coordinates development of multicellular organisms. Many of these factors mediate their pleiotropic actions by binding to and activating cell surface receptors with an intrinsic protein tyrosine kinase activity. Changes in cell behavior induced by extracellular signaling molecules such as growth factors and cytokines require execution of a complex program of transcriptional events. To activate or repress transcription, transcription factors must be located in the nucleus, bind DNA, and interact with the basal transcription apparatus. Accordingly, extracellular signals that regulate transcription factor activity may affect one or more of these processes. Most commonly, regulation is achieved by reversible phosphorylation. Phosphorylation of a transcription factor by several different kinases (or by a kinase linked to more than one pathway) is a simple mechanism that allows different signals to converge at the same factor.
There are a number of approaches in the literature directed to the analysis of phosphorylation. One such method is two-dimensional phosphopeptide mapping of 32P-labeled proteins. Another approach relies on mass spectrometry for analysis of non-radiolabeled phosphoproteins. In another approach (Cao, et al, Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. (2000) 14:1600-1606) phosphorylation sites of proteins are mapped using on-line immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC)/capillary electrophoresis (CE)/electrospray ionization multiple stage tandem mass spectrometry (MS). The IMAC resin retains and preconcentrates phosphorylated proteins and peptides, CE separates the phosphopeptides of a mixture eluted from the IMAC resin, and MS provides information including the phosphorylation sites of each component.
A procedure for micropurification of phosphorylated peptides, as a front end to mass spectrometric analysis, is disclosed by Posewitz, et al., Anal. Chem. (1999) 71:2883-2892. Immobilized metal affinity chromatography in a microtip format and more specifically, in combination with gallium III ions is employed. Phosphopeptides are retrieved in near quantitative and highly selective manner, to yield a concentrated sample for direct analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight and nanoelectrospray ionization mass spectrometry.
A need still exists, however, for methods for identifying and/or determining activity of and/or determining the presence and/or amounts of polypeptides involved in post-translational modification processes. The methods should be able to identify the modification that has occurred, the site or sites of modification and the location of the sites of modification. The methods should utilize class-specific reagents where possible and be able to detect multiple polypeptides in a single assay, i.e., have a high degree of multiplexing capability. The methods should allow information to be determined in real time and allow a determination of the importance of certain polypeptides in biological pathways. Furthermore, it is important that the method permit multiplexing in order to determine whether a particular pathway is activated.